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10/12/2005 Archived Entry: "Trainer George Hernandez: Giuseppe “Drew” Kidd is Recovering Slowly!"
Trainer George Hernandez: Giuseppe “Drew” Kidd is Recovering Slowly!
By Juan C. Ayllon
Giuseppe Kidd (right) in a match in June 2004 (Juan C. Ayllon photo)
CHICAGO, October 11, 2005 – By all accounts, Giuseppe—or Drew—Kidd is a likeable guy whom, up until several months ago was an exciting and undefeated heavyweight prizefighter. Now, far removed from the crowd and bright lights, he fights a daily battle at the Schwab Rehabilitation Center at Mount Sinai Hospital to regain full use of his motor, speech and memory skills.
His veteran trainer, George Hernandez, has agonized endlessly since that fateful sparring session where, thankfully, he sensed something amiss after Kidd absorbed two heavy blows from his sparring partner and—against Kidd’s protests—called it off. Shortly thereafter, Kidd underwent emergency surgery to alleviate life-threatening swelling of his brain.
Kidd suffered a subdural hematoma, a collection of blood on the surface of the brain lying between the outer covering (the dura) of the brain and the brain’s surface*. This was the same type of brain injury that killed boxer Levander Johnson on September 23rd, five days after losing his IBF Lightweight Championship belt to Jesus Chavez by brutal stoppage. Like Johnson, Kidd was placed in a medically induced coma to facilitate the healing process. Unlike Johnson, Kidd survived and, has begun the gradual journey back to wholeness.
Hernandez, whose own daughter was ironically hospitalized for a head injury sustained during a fall down some stairs at home as he spoke, talked at length about Giuseppe Kidd’s recovery, as well the feelings he experienced in dealing with it all, in a candid and exclusive interview.
On how Drew is faring at the moment:
GEORGE HERNANDEZ: Well, Drew is in therapy and he’s doing quite well for a man that had a subdural hemorrhage, and all the swelling has come down. He’s actually taking some steps. He’s taking speech therapy and he’s also responding very well. He’s taking speech therapy, you know, therapy for movement of his hands, to walk; they’re teaching him all the basic steps again. They’re doing electro impulses to set the muscles. He’s doing quite well, he’s remembering well, and he’s coming along real good.
You know, he’s still got a trache [i.e., a tracheotomy tube]. Juan, in this case, he’s been severely injured. All in all, though, to answer your question as to how he’s doing, I think he’s doing a lot better than can be expected from a man that had a subdural hemorrhage. That’s the same thing that that other fighter in Las Vegas died from…Levander Johnson, the same thing he died from, yeah.
And, he does a lot of movement on the left side; ah, he has movement on the right side, but it’s a little bit slower on the right side than it is on the left side.
They’re sitting him down on chairs, they’re giving him speech therapy, they’re testing his muscles, they’re testing his…[ability] for him to remember things and he remembers quite well often.
So, you know, one of the things that I’m grateful for and thankful to Jesus is that he’s with us there, you know. I mean, he’s responding, so you know, hopefully, he’ll come through it.
Brain injuries take time to heal. And, according to the medical staff, this is a process [where] everything is going better than most. He’s progressing very well. They expect complete recovery and it’s just going to take time.
The unfortunate thing is these hospital stays are very expensive, and the therapy and the medication.
And he’s still got to go back into surgery because once the swelling…[subsides] and the doctors are assured he’s not going to hemorrhage again and stuff, they’ll…[replace] a piece of his skull [which was removed to alleviate dangerous pressure on his brain] back in his head.
Thank you Jesus that we can have these procedures to bring Giuseppe back to us!
On the need for financial reform in the sport of boxing:
GH: You know, if people were to realize and understand what a fighter goes through from an injury like this, you know I think maybe people would be more [likely to pressure for reforms]; somewhere along the line, you know these fighters, we need insurance for our fighters, too, you know, and some type of backing.
On his daughter’s head injury sustained during a fall down the stairs at home:
GH: I’m in the hospital right now at Lutheran General and that’s my daughter today, man. That’s rough, you know, to go through this again and to have somebody in your family [hurt like this]. She’s 26 years old, a mother, and going to graduate school at Loyola University to be a teacher.
That’s when I left the gym, I said, ‘I hope she doesn’t have subdural—you know, the same thing. She fell down the stairs at home. She hit her head on the floor; she was knocked out. And, I said, ‘Here I go again.’ [Editor’s note: George confirmed today that she had a bad concussion; he was en route to the hospital to visit her again]
On how while boxing is dangerous, brain injuries are not limited to boxing:
GH: Boxing is a very dangerous sport, and fighters and young kids, they should know that when they take this sport up, it can happen to you, too.
Brain injuries don’t just happen in boxing. Boxing’s a good sport. It provides a lot of opportunities for kids and makes a lot of people rich. People engage in it for different reasons. Let’s not make boxing the villain, here, you know what I mean?
On the strain of dealing with Giuseppe and—now-- his daughter’s head injuries:
GH: You know, people don’t understand that, when it’s a loved one and you don’t know what stage that person is going to be in, and the medical care and attention that a human being needs after they undergo brain surgery. It’s just traumatic.
I mean, it’s just intensive; it’s very intensive because it’s a long process and it really depresses you for long periods of time. And every emotion you can think of, you’ll go through. I know I’ve been through all that these last past couple of months. I mean, they’ve been very, very hectic.
On the delicate nature of life and the need to be grateful and get along with one another:
GH: Be grateful that you wake up. Outside of everything, without your health you can’t do anything. My thing is I’m not going to separate myself from anybody. I never knew in my wildest dreams that I’d be going through the same thing with my daughter.
We’re all human and we all bleed and we can all pray together. If we can get along without criticizing each other and hurting each other the world would be a better place.
Summarizing on Giuseppe:
GH: Anyway, I guess people want to know how he’s doing. He’s lost a lot of weight. Oh, he’s got to be under 200…[before, he was] about 218, 220, somewhere around there.
You can say that brain injuries [are] a very slow process. But, he’s still with us and, with God’s love and prayers and God’s grace, I think, he is going to pull through. He’s pulled through already.
I know it’s going to be a long process. But, you know what? I’m looking forward to the day when he smiles again and talks and we can joke about this. I don’t know if we can joke about it, but I know there’s going to come a better time, a better day than we’re having today.
He’s talking; you know, they’re trying to get him back to pronounce words and talk again and say things. I just caught a little of the speech therapy one day, ‘cause I go there, I brought him some gloves. The therapist asked me to bring him some punch mitts, and so I brought a pair of gloves and punch mitts to the therapy, ‘cause they’re hoping that’ll snap him out. He’s not completely a hundred percent. But, they’re hoping that’ll make him snap out of it because, you know, he goes in and out. You know what I mean?
You know, he’s doing remarkably well for a man that has the injuries that he has. It’s a miracle, I think, that from modern medicine we can save him.
And, so, eventually, when the family gets together and decides to post that fund raising thing that we can start fund raising to pay some of his bills, his medical bills are enormous by now.
The thing is, he’s at the Schwab Rehabilitation Center there. That’s a good center; they do good work there and people are taking good care of him. I guess, in a sense, he’s been lucky.
I just want to do the best of what I can to contribute whatever I can to help this man regain 100 percent. That’s all that we can ask for.
See also: http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/news/archives/00001130.htm
*Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000713.htm
